Comment: I hope this isn't true, but I thought it might be worth
submitting.

Some friends are hanging around in a library when they come upon a garbage
chute, which they mistake for a laundry chute. One young man decides to
impress his friends by taking a ride down the "laundry chute," so he hops
in the garbage chute and is crushed to death.

I have designed buildings that had garbage chutes that emptied into a crusher. However, the crusher did not operate immediately when something was dropped in. In fact, I think most of the garbage crushers require manual operation and have several safeties on them.

That was my thought. So the only way to be "crushed" would be to have someone operating the crusher at the time of your landing or for someone to use the chute for something large and heavy, which would land on you, normally not what garbage chutes are meant for.

There is some truth to this, though not in the way the story portrays it.

Delta Township, MI – Tyree Monique Tate, 26, and her sister had a really bad day on Monday. They got caught shoplifting, assaulted a security guard and ran from the police before 10:00 in the morning. By noon, Tyree Tate was in critical condition after hiding from the cops in a trash compactor that was accidentally turned on. On Tuesday morning, Tyree Tate died. This is probably the worst shoplifting-gone-bad story ever. Read on, denizens, and see for yourselves. On Monday morning, Tate and her sister went on a back-to-school shoplifting trip for their kids. They’d picked up a few things from the T.J. Maxx at Lansing Mall and were heading out of the store when they were accosted by store security. The women chose to run with their loot, spraying the security officer in the face with a can of pepper spray to ease their escape. Tate and her sister got away with under $500 in merchandise, and took off across a highway while police were en route. Tyree Tate and her sister ran behind a Goodwill store and stopped at a large, dumpster-sized trash compactor at the rear loading dock. Trash is sent out the loading dock into the compactor, where it crushes its contents into a manageable size for transport. Tate apparently thought the “Keep Out” signs were a suggestion rather than a serious caution. She got into the compactor, which was not on at the time.

Tate’s sister was caught by police outside a Meijer’s store nearby, but she wasn’t cooperating. The sister, whose name has not been released, refused to tell police where her sister was hiding. She even said she only knew Tate by her street name, “Diamond”. And right about then, a Goodwill employee turned on the trash compactor, totally unaware that Tyree Monique Tate was hiding inside.

The employee couldn’t see Tate, but heard her screams. At 10:15 a.m., the employee called 911 asking for help for the person stuck inside the compactor. Tyree Tate was extracted from her unfortunate hiding place and was taken to a hopsital, but she died on Tuesday morning of what the preliminary autopsy report called “multiple crush injuries”. Tyree Tate was a mother of three young children.

The stolen merchandise was not recovered, so police released Tyree Tate’s sister pending further investigation. Authorities say it is likely that charges will be filed; they’re just not sure which ones yet.

By the way, the person telling me the story made a comment like, "These people were so dumb that they thought there would be a laundry chute in a library!" I know A Turtle Named Mack expressed doubt about this part of the story, but the way it was told to me, it supposedly makes the people in the story look stupid, rather than being an error in the story.